Recent domestic events have heightened the need for an effective manner in which to assure the uncontaminated delivery of contained products to a consumer, particularly medicinal products taken internally. Specifically needed is a container for such products which bear assuring indication to the consumer that the contents have not been tampered with from their point of manufacture to the point of consumer sale.
A fundamental prior art approach toward meeting this need is seen in the so-called "telltale" indication, i.e., a readily discernible characteristic indicative of tampering, such as a signal that some person has previously attempted to gain access to the container contents. Broadly speaking, this approach can be generalized as placing a tamper-indicating member in the path of access to a container to indicate tampering by dsicernible change. Categorizing telltale types, one finds in the prior art approaches elements which evidence color change, which mechanically present literal messages, and which are ruptured or torn upon the occurrence of tampering. The color change devices may be considered less than desirable as requiring ambient-sensitive constituents and measures for sealing same from ambient environment. The mechanical devices providing literal indication, i.e., the words "closed" or "open", are less than desirable as they are inherently complex and customized. Of the three categories, the rupturing and tearing practice offers the best potential for desired simplicity in solution.
Prior art telltales may also be categorized in respect of the relative location of the telltale to the container access port. Here, one finds efforts in which the telltales are located directly at the access port and wherein the telltale are otherwise located in the path of access to the container. In the former locational practices, telltales directly span the access opening, e.g., are secured across the mouths of jars. In the latter, the telltales are located in container wrappers, within plastic heat shrunk about the capped jar, etc. Clearly, the effective location for a telltale is directly at the access port, since wrappers, heat shrunk plastic sleeves and like telltale items outside the container may be removed and the remaining capped container remain without tamper indication.
Further, prior art telltale indication may be categorized as of type wherein the telltale directly at the access opening is closure member activated or not. In the former category, reverse sense (opening) movement of the closure member brings some element into tearing relation with the telltale. In the latter case, the telltale is unaffected by closure member removal. Clearly, the closure member activated case affords greater security.
Specific prior art patents depicting the foregoing practices are identified and discussed in detail in the statement pursuant to 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 filed herein.
Of such prior art patents, U.S. Waring U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,131,774 and 2,131,775 are considered to disclose tamper-indicating containers incorporating the desired of the foregoing categories of tamper indication. In these containers, the tamper-indicating element is simple rupturable sheet material. The element is located directly at the container mouth opening and is cap-activated. In accomodating this operative selection of features, however, Waring has vulnerability, recognized expressly in the patents, to direct tampering with the telltale element.
The Waring U.S. Pat. No. 2,131,774 practice is to provide a cap in the form of a hollow cylinder having a skirt depending from the cap top and interiorly threaded to receive the jar neck. The cap top is centrally open and prongs are formed in the plane of the cap extending into the central opening. The telltale element is nested in the cap interior and suitably secured therein. The cap with its nested telltale is then rotated into secured relation with the jar. Now the prongs are bent out of the plane of the cap top and into puncturing relation with the telltale element, remaining accessible through the open cap top.
In commenting on this aspect of his capped container, Waring states that if one tampers with the prongs, i.e., by bending same out of such ruptured relation with the telltale element, the consumer can detect such tampering by observing the state of the prongs said to be deformed on reinsertion and by observing the state of the telltale element said to be thus marred. Such ultimate reliance on demanding observations by the consumer renders the Waring approach less than desirable, despite its inclusion of the most effective of the outlined practices. Its shortcoming indicates still another essential to effective tamper indication, namely, that the rupturing elements and telltale must be maintained inaccessible.
In related considerations, applicants see as highly desirable characteristics of effective tamper indication such matters as equipping closure members with complete tamper-indicating capability at the point of their manufacture, enabling them to be made without customized cap structure or cap-working steps as in the Waring approach, and as adapted for use with the widespread varieties of caps currently in production.
In pending commonly-assigned U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 441,109 filed on Nov. 12, 1982 and entitled "Container with Tamper Indication and Method for Providing Same" and Ser. No. 443,608 filed on Nov. 22, 1982 and entitled "Tamper-Indicating Closure for a Container, Container and Method for Making Same", apparatus and methods are provided for accomodating the foregoing practice selections and having characteristics also accomodating such existing industrial practices in the related industries.
In these applications a container closure is provided having a closure member defining container closing expanse, a tamper-indicating element in the closure interiorly of the closure member and means movable with the closure for both retaining the tamper-indicating element with the closure and for selectively rupturing the tamper-indicating element, such means being inaccessible through the closing expanse of the closure member and the closure affording visibility exteriorly thereof of the condition of the tamper-indicating element. In a typical jar container embodiment in accordance with the Ser. No. 443,608 application, the closure comprises a cap having a disc-shaped rupturable telltale interiorly of the cap depending skirt and telltale retaining-rupturing means extending from the upper cap interior downwardly into securement with the telltale disc, such means being movable with the cap in the course of its rotative movement. Upon first sense closure movement into releasable securement with a jar neck, the entirety of the closure rotates in unison. At the end of such first sense movement, an adhesive upon the jar adjacent its mouth engages the telltale disc. Second sense closure movement to open the container gives rise to the selective activity of the retaining-rupturing means, i.e., the cap and such means move in unison relative to the now jar-secured telltale, disrupting the integrity thereof, as would be visible to a consumer through a transparent or translucent cap.
The Ser. No. 443,608 application also contemplates maintaining the contents of a container further secure from ambient environment by securing to the margin of the telltale after its securement to the retaining-rupturing means, a sealing layer which is in turn sealed to the container access port. Thus, there results a closure having the customary glassine sealing wafer visible from the underside of the closure, but with a telltale system interiorly thereof.